Ukip’s Scottish launch amuses but fails to inspire

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David Coburn, the Ukip MEP, at the launch of his party's Scottish manifestoFraser Bremner

Hamish Macdonell

Published at 12:01AM, May 5 2015

Ukip’s Scottish manifesto launch yesterday elevated the cliché of the
political car crash to a new level. To begin with, it must have been the
only manifesto launch in British history not in fact to have featured a
manifesto.

The event in Falkirk should have been a chance for David Coburn, Scotland’s
Ukip MEP, to parade his party’s Scottish manifesto, but a mix up involving
the printers, the couriers and the bank holiday meant that the document did
not arrive in time. Mr Coburn and Arthur “Misty” Thackeray, Ukip’s Scottish
chairman, handed out the British manifesto instead — which contained not